Chapter 12 2.hit the last bullet

The fascist divisions first carried out a violent assault on our frontier defense team and a small number of garrison troops in the fortification area that had not yet completed the fortification.The commanders of these detachments did their duty heroically: not one of them gave up their positions under the onslaught of an overwhelmingly superior enemy.The frontier defense teams and the permanent launch points in the fortification area immediately became small isolated islands surrounded by enemies.They were surrounded by groups and engaged in a battle of great disparity in strength. The fighters of the 98th Frontier Corps, commanded by Lieutenant Colonel B. B. Surzhenko, showed amazing firmness.The 9th Frontier Squad of the corps, under the leadership of Lieutenant G. H. Gusev, turned to counterattack several times.Not taking a step back from the border.About 600 Hitler officers and soldiers found their doom in the proximity of the border squad position and the firing point positions in the adjacent fortified area.

The troops arrived by my 5th Army tried to get closer to the few besieged warriors, but failed.We all wondered uneasily: Can they be rescued?You know, their ammunition will run out by evening... The situation of the neighboring border squad is even more difficult.The enemy's first sudden artillery attack caused irreparable losses to the frontier squad: all buildings were blown up in an instant, and many frontier soldiers died under the collapsed houses.The surviving fighters, led by Captain Political Instructor G.B. Bobenko, quickly occupied the defense and struck the enemy.In the Vladimir-Volynsky area in the south, the frontier soldiers of the 90th Frontier Corps under the command of Major M. C. Bychkovsky fought bravely in the main assault direction of the fascist army.The frontier fighters of the 13th border squad, commanded by Lieutenant A. B. Lopatin, showed the greatest firmness.We learned in the evening that they were holding their ground in the basement of the destroyed house of the border squad, continuing to fight.Can the troops of the 87th Infantry Division rescue them?

According to our most optimistic estimates, the border guards can support up to two days.But many border squads have fought far longer.Lopatin's frontier squad fought for eleven days and nights!The heroes fought to the last breath, all sacrificed under the ruins of the house, but did not lay down their weapons. Frontier soldiers of the Peremeshli Frontier Corps under the command of Lieutenant Colonel F.A. Tarutin fought bravely.In the area of ​​Lieutenant E. C. Nechayev's border squad, near Peremyshli, there is a bridge over the San River.The enemy leader sent a specially trained detachment to capture the bridge.The detachment rushed to the bridge and captured it, but our border guards resolutely counterattacked and drove off the Hitler bandits.The fascists fired crazily artillery and mortars at our soldiers, forcibly crossed the San River under the cover of artillery fire, and outflanked the border guards from both wings.In battles of disparity in strength, the number of heroes quickly becomes dwindling.In the end only Lieutenant Nechayev remained.He let the fascists approach him and fired the last grenade.

All of what I have said comes from eyewitness accounts and very incomplete reports on the border.But there is another circumstantial evidence.We captured a German chief who took part in several raids on Lieutenant H. C. Slyusarev's 9th Frontier Squad.There is a bridge over the San River (east of Radmno) in the Border Squad lot.The Hitlerite's confession was recorded by front-line correspondent Vladimir Belyaev.Now I cite this record. "Before this time," said the chief of staff, "we were stationed near the Soviet border, and all we heard were the songs of Soviet border guards. Defending our country bravely. Their firepower is terrible! We left a lot of corpses on the bridge, but we still couldn't take it immediately. So our battalion commander ordered to cross the San River from the left and right sides in order to encircle the place the bridge, and take it whole. But no sooner had we plunged into the river than the Russian border guards strafed us here again. The damage done by their blast fire was horrific. Wherever our battalion was, whether in Poland or in France, Neither suffered the kind of losses we suffered when we were anxious to cross the San. The battalion commander, seeing that his attempt might fail, ordered the 80 mm mortars to fire. We began to board the Soviet side under cover of artillery fire. The river bank. Our heavy artillery has shifted its firepower deep into the Soviet border, where the faint rumble of tanks can be heard. But although we have reached the Soviet bank, we still cannot advance as quickly as our commander hoped. Your border guards There are firing points in some places. They hid in it, and they fired almost to the last bullet. We had to call the sappers. If they could, they climbed in front of the fortifications and blasted them with Dynamite. But the explosion As soon as the boom had passed, the border guards resisted again, hitting the last man. We have never seen such determined and tenacious soldiers anywhere and at any time. We have bypassed the launch point and continued to advance, but no force can Get two or three frontier guards out of their position. They would rather die than retreat. A Soviet frontier guard can only be captured under two conditions: first, he is dead; lost consciousness... There were nine hundred men in our battalion. One hundred and fifty were killed alone. More than one hundred were wounded. Many were carried away by the rapids, and we were unable to get them out in our panic. Pull it ashore..."

I have nothing to add to the unabashed confession of the German military chief.Thus our frontier soldiers greeted the first day of the war. And at this moment, what happened in the regional positions of fortification on the frontiers? I want to remind again that until the enemy starts to invade, most of the border fortification areas in our military region have not yet completed the construction of fortifications, and only some permanent launch points can be used.I did not send my infantry division to cover the national border to occupy the field defense positions that had been constructed.This makes defending fortified territory more difficult.The Hitlerites, attacking with the support of heavy artillery fire, relatively quickly blocked most of my permanent launch points, but failed to break the tenacious will of their few defenders.Fascist artillery and tanks fired directly at permanent firing points with concrete-busting rounds.Enemy engineers crawled up to the firing point with explosives.With accurate firepower and brave attacks, the Soviet soldiers repelled the enemy time and time again.The few fighters who always fight to the last breath.Even if there is only one Red Army soldier left at the Yongbei launch point, the small defenders will not stop fighting.Only when the majority of the fascist troops had penetrated the fortification area from the two flanks and penetrated into our rear, the rest of the defenders would receive an order to retreat.They destroyed heavy weapons and fought their way out of the enemy's tight encirclement.These people can really be said to have made outstanding achievements.We always read every report on the fortified land with great excitement.

The Strumilov fortified area had a permanent launch point commanded by Lt. J. C. Kulish.As soon as the war started, the permanent launch point was surrounded by the enemy and was besieged step by step.The fascists used powerful artillery to fire directly, and mortar shells also poured in.The soldiers were choked by the poisonous smoke, but their fighting spirit has not diminished.Seeing that they could not force the Soviet soldiers to lay down their arms, the fascists moved explosives to the permanent launch point.At this time, a few heroes suddenly attacked and wiped out the enemy's engineers in fierce hand-to-hand combat.The battle intensified.

Commanded by 2nd Lieutenants B.J. Dunning and 2nd Lieutenants E.A. Chaplin The defenders of the two permanent launching points in the Peremeshli fortification area repelled many attacks by the fascists in a few days and nights.In order to save bullets, Danin put the Hitler gangsters in front of him, and then led the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat.But the bullet ran out.Almost all the defenders of the small fortress were killed.Only two survived: the wounded Lieutenant Danin and Sergeant Merkulov.The fascists wanted them to surrender.But Danin and Merkulov grabbed the last few grenades, opened the door and rushed silently at the Hitlerites.Merkulov fell from a submachine gun burst.The fascists rushed at him.With the last of his strength, the sergeant yanked the grenade grip.There was an explosion... Da Ning, who was covered in blood, finally reached the launch point of Youlin Yongbei.

The Fascists fired hundreds of concrete-breaking bombs at the permanent firing point held by the defenders commanded by Lieutenant Chaplin.The soldiers were deafened by the explosion and almost all were injured by concrete fragments falling from the walls.They were choked by the smoke and dust.Sometimes there is no movement at the permanent launch point for a long time.But as soon as the Hitler bandits charged, the little fortress came alive again, killing the enemy one after another with accurate shots.The Fascists seized the San River Bridge.But they were unable to take advantage of the iron bridge because it was under the control of machine gun fire from the permanent Soviet firing points.In this way, the stalemate continued for a week until the warriors ran out of bullets.It was only then that the fascist sappers could deliver the explosives to the permanent firing points.Chaplin and his men were killed, and they never left their posts.

There are many such fortified area garrison troops. The launch points on the Soviet border, with their small but tenacious defenders, were the first obstacle to the fascist mass' eastward advance.The heroic struggle of border guards and border fighters is of great significance.As soon as the German army set foot on the territory of the Soviet Union, the blitzkrieg plan carefully concocted by Hitler's high command went awry.